Overview
“Mit rund drei Millionen Einwohnern ist es die mit Abstand größte kaukasische Teilrepublik, und wegen seiner Lage am Kaspischen Meer bildet es für Russland einen strategisch wichtigen Teil dieser Region. Zugleich leben hier auf einem Territorium von der Größe Bayerns drei Dutzend autochthone Nationalitäten. Damit ist Dagestan das Gebiet mit der größten ethnischen Vielfalt nicht nur im Kaukasus, sondern im gesamten postsowjetischen Raum.“ (
SWP, April 2015, p. 5-6)
“Dagestan is now considered both Russia’s most ethnically diverse republic and the region where Islam is most deeply rooted. More than 90 percent of the population is Muslim – 97 percent are Sunni and 3 percent are Shia. Sufism, which emphasizes the mystical dimension of Islam has long been practiced in the North Caucasus and is deeply entwined with Dagestani identity.” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 14)
Religious conflict
“Значительное влияние на разные стороны общественной жизни Дагестана оказывает ислам. […] Традиционно население здесь исповедовало различные тарикаты (‚пути‘) суфийского направления в исламе. До сих пор большинство верующих в республике придерживаются именно этого направления. […] С 90-х годов прошлого века в республике начало активно распространяться новое для Кавказа религиозное течение – салафизм, или фундаменталистский ислам.” (
Memorial, 4 September 2012, p. 8)
“Islam is the majority’s religion, especially in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia, where the internal factors of the umma (Islamic community) have an increasingly profound impact on society. Most of the region’s Muslims follow a form of Islam perceived as ‘traditional’ in the region because it is deeply interwoven with local customs, practices and beliefs. The east has a strong tradition of Sufism, whose brotherhoods (tariqas) have been in conflict with the Salafis for over a decade. […] Traditional Muslims are more successfully integrated into the Russian secular system and recognise its institutions and law; their religious boards have become semi-government institutions.” (
ICG, 19. October 2012b, p. 2)
“Салафиты, которых часто неточно называют ваххабитами, не признают святых и учителей, считая их наличие нарушением принципа единобожия в исламе. Они не признают вкраплений в религиозную практику народных традиций, выступают за упрощение обрядности и буквальное толкование Корана. […] В Дагестане, в отличие от Чечни, где конфликт начинался как сепаратистский, раскол был изначально как политическим, так и религиозным. […] В 90-х годах XX века конфликт, тогда еще не вооруженный, происходил как внутри исламских общин в населенных пунктах, так и между представителями духовенства: Духовного управления мусульман Республики Дагестан с одной стороны и лидерами салафитов – с другой. Одновременно нарастало давление на салафитов со стороны государственных силовых структур.” (
Memorial, 4 September 2012, p. 8-9)
“Towards the end of the decade, the Salafi movement began to spread throughout Dagestan, bringing religious conflict between Sufis and Salafis. By late 1996, the official religious establishment, dominated by Sufi leaders, grew openly hostile to Salafi adherents. Said Muhammad Haji Abubakarov, then head of the pro-government, official Muslim Spiritual Board, made a speech in which he said that ‘any Muslim who kills a Wahhabi will enter Paradise.’” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 15)
“On August 7, 1999, fighters closely linked to Magomedov invaded Dagestan with a group of 1,500-2,000 armed Arab, Chechen, and Dagestani fighters […] In September 1999, federal authorities began to pursue individuals suspected of involvement in or supporting the August 1999 incursion from Chechnya. This marked the beginning of a concerted, multi-year campaign in which the net was cast widely to include suspected Islamist extremists.” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 16)
“После событий 1999 года государство стало привлекать к уголовной ответственности участников и пособников нападения на Дагестан. Тогда же Народное Собрание РД приняло закон ‘О запрете ваххабистской и иной экстремистской деятельности на территории Республики Дагестан‘. Внятного определения ‘ваххабизма‘, да и ‘экстремизма‘, в этом законе нет. В правовом смысле его последствия ничтожны. Однако этот закон создал предпосылки для репрессий: фактически каждый, кто по субъективной оценке сотрудника правоохранительных органов мог быть причислен к приверженцам ‚ваххабизима‘, становился жертвой милицейского произвола. Произошло смешение уголовно-правового и религиозного понятий: борьба с терроризмом фактически превратилась в борьбу с приверженцами ‚ваххабизма‘ как религиозного течения.” (
Memorial, 4 September 2012, p. 9-10)
“For almost a decade after the second Chechen war began, Dagestan authorities made no distinction between moderate and radical, violence-oriented Salafis, which contributed to radicalisation of the entire community.” (
ICG, 19. October 2012b, p. 9)
“A survey in Dagestan has found that 20 percent of the republic’s youth consider themselves moderate Salafis. Only 10 percent of the respondents referred to themselves as Sufis – traditionally the main Muslim branch in Dagestan. The most educated among those who identified themselves as moderate Salafis said they were in favor of mimicking the experience of such countries as Brunei, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman in bringing norms of sharia into governance in Dagestan. The survey also found that 12 percent of the respondents favor the radical methods of struggle adopted by the North Caucasus militants. It is especially striking that young people openly stated support for rebels in the republic. According to a Dagestani expert on Islam, Ruslan Gereyev, the survey was conducted only in cities, and support for the rebels would have been even higher had the interviews been conducted in rural areas of the republic (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, December 9).” (
Jamestown Foundation, 14 December 2011)
“Весной и летом 2012 года начался диалог и между находившимися в конфликте суфиями и салафитами.” (
Memorial, 4 September 2012, p. 5)
“The most thorough attempt, after years of violence, to bring Salafis into a dialogue with the state and Sufi leaders, is in Dagestan. The insurgency itself is not interested in dialogue and seeks to undermine it with new terrorist attacks, while the security services also disrupt the process by further heavy-handed measures. […] The dialogue may have come close to its end with the killing of Sheikh Said Afandi, the most influential sheikh in the North Caucasus, by a newly converted Islamist in his home on 28 August 2012. […] When the moderate Salafi organisation condemned the killing and called for continuation of dialogue, insurgents threatened its leaders. The leader of the Caucasus Emirate (Imarat Kavkaz), Doku Umarov, made a video asserting that Sufis who do not cooperate with the authorities are ‘brothers in Islam’ and invited them to join jihad.” (
ICG, 19. October 2012b, p. 3-12)
“Against the backdrop of multiple killings of young members of the jamaats, Salafi ideology will attract more young people who regard the teaching as the only way of resisting the local authorities who work under Moscow’s auspices. Salafism in contemporary Dagestan has become a serious counterweight to official Sufism, as the latter has undermined its authority by close cooperation with the government. Sufism’s loss of authority is directly linked to the young people’s drift toward joining the ranks of the jihadists.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 10 January 2013)
“Unter Abdulatipow ist der unter seinem Vorgänger Magomedsalam Magomedow erfolgreich installierte Dialog zwischen traditionellen Sunniten und einem gemäßigten Flügel der Salafisten zum Erliegen gekommen. Stattdessen nimmt die staatliche Repression zu.” (
AI, October 2013)
“With the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games fast approaching, in late 2013 the authorities opted for more ‘heavy-handed security policies in the North Caucasus.’ Law enforcement agencies in Dagestan boosted their efforts to control Salafi communities. Police started rounding up, photographing, fingerprinting, and questioning Salafis, and placing them on ‘extremist’ watch lists, a process colloquially known as ‘Wahhabi registration [uchet vakhabitov or vakh-uchet].’” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 42)
“Over the past few months most Salafi civic activity in Dagestan has been pushed underground. Moderate leaders have been harassed; some have fled the republic and their projects been closed. The Salafi human rights group ‘Pravozashchita’, which publicised abuses, was targeted, its leaders detained or placed under surveillance and an activist’s home searched. Its outspoken representative in Buynaksk was arrested and, human rights groups said, a criminal case fabricated against her. Since late 2013, the police have been detaining Salafis en masse from cafés, mosques, and homes. […] Arrests of men with beards or women wearing a hijab have become routine. They are usually released after their documents have been checked and they have been interrogated and fingerprinted. Such practices have visibly radicalised previously moderate believers. […] Abdulatipov has encouraged the creation of militias to combat extremism. In some cases these are made up of Sufis and have reportedly been involved in inter-confessional violence.” (
ICG, 30 January 2014, p. 7-8)
“The government in Dagestan, as elsewhere in the North Caucasus and across the Russian Federation, designated a strand of Islam that is officially approved and financed by the state. Normally, its public bodies are called Spiritual Boards of Muslims, which strive to represent all Muslims even though many are suspicious of the connections these organizations have with the government. Many of the officials in the approved Muslim organizations lack an Islamic education and are regularly embarrassed by the younger generation of Muslim leaders that have received instruction in Islamic institutions abroad. In 2013, Dagestan’s governor, Ramazan Abdulatipov, proposed his own way of combating the diversity among Muslim scholars in the republic, declaring that all people who studied Islam abroad must return to Dagestan or face automatic inclusion on the lists of militants. As experts point out, however, people who receive Islamic education abroad have long been automatically entered into the police databases anyway, so Abdulatipov’s proposal actually added little new to the existing police practices, apart from making them more explicit (kavpolit.com, November 7, 2013).” (
Jamestown Foundation, 21 October 2014)
”Still, Dagestan remains the only region in Russia where Salafis operate openly. The Salafis were allowed to function in the republic in order to neutralize their influence on young people. However, Dagestani youth took the opportunity and started to join the Salafis and the radicals in large numbers. The Salafis are divided into two groups, one which is fighting the authorities and the other which refuses to take up arms to defend its views. As of today, there are no reliable estimates of the ratio of peaceful Salafis to violent Salafis, but the ratio is probably 1,000 to 1, i.e. one Salafi fighter per 1,000 peaceful Salafis. However, even the peaceful Salafis are closer to the violent Salafis than they are to the Sufis or to the government. Even though the Salafis operate legally in Dagestan, they still have no freedom of association or right to build their own mosques. Mosques that are under Salafi control are constantly watched by the police.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 7 May 2015)
“Mass arrests of Muslims in mosques have become a hallmark of the Dagestani head Ramazan Abdulatipov’s policies. […] However, some experts say the mass arrests are part of a campaign of harassment against some categories of Muslims in Dagestan and a step backward in the dialogue between religious groups. […] According to Akhmet Yarlykapov, a Moscow-based expert of Dagestani origin, up to 50 percent of the republic’s Muslims do not subordinate to the official Spiritual Board of Muslims of Dagestan, which is dominated by the Sufi branch of Islam. According to Yarlykapov, government policies against the Salafis could drive them to become an underground movement, which would not be a positive development even though the Salafis would not necessarily turn to violence.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 19 May 2015)
Insurgency in Dagestan
Development of the insurgency
“Islamist militancy in Dagestan rose in the mid-1990’s, when links developed between Chechen separatist warlords and Dagestan’s Salafi religious community. Ideas of jihad, or holy war, in Dagestan can be traced to 1992, when Bagautdin Magomedov (Kebedov), who came to be known as ‘the father of the Dagestani jihad,’ established a Quranic school in Kizilyurt, a town in Dagestan. By 1996, he explicitly called for holy war against the ‘infidels.’ […] In the period between the two Chechen wars, from 1997 to 1999, Islamists shuttled between the two republics. On August 7, 1999, fighters closely linked to Magomedov invaded Dagestan with a group of 1,500-2,000 armed Arab, Chechen, and Dagestani fighters, supposedly to support Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi, two self-declared ‘Sharia [Islamic law] mini-states’ influenced by Magomedov’s teachings. Russian troops eventually drove out the militant forces and a month later launched large-scale military operations in Chechnya, which became the second Chechen war. The Republic of Dagestan remained a volatile site of insurgency thereafter. […] In September 1999, federal authorities began to pursue individuals suspected of involvement in or supporting the August 1999 incursion from Chechnya. This marked the beginning of a concerted, multi-year campaign in which the net was cast widely to include suspected Islamist extremists. Hundreds were arrested. According to the Russian human rights organization Memorial Human Rights Center, the authorities tortured numerous detainees held in this campaign. Abduction-style detentions also became widespread. The majority of those abducted were Salafis.” (
HRW, 18. Juni 2015, p. 15-16)
“Chechen separatism is the most prominent case of mobilisation based on memories of grievances, suppressed by the Soviet regime and channelled by nationalist leaders into demands for full independence. The resulting conflict has had a profound effect on the entire North Caucasus, particularly on Ingushetia and Dagestan where there was a direct spillover of displaced persons, combat and security operations. The secessionist conflict has now largely been superseded by an Islamist insurgency that continues in Chechnya and has spread to its neighbours.” (
ICG, 19 October 2012a, p. 9)
“The Republic of Dagestan has become the principal scene of all the North Caucasian resistance movement in the past two years. Not only does the republic have the largest number of jamaats operating on its territory in the North Caucasus, but it also boasts of having the largest group of people there who are literate in Islamic theology and adhere to the ideas of an all-out jihadism in the region.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 17 May 2012)
“With the Kremlin’s appointment of Magomedsalam Magomedov as president of Dagestan in February 2010, the republic’s leadership launched a new, diversified effort to stabilize the republic. Magomedov spoke of the need for political change and pledged to modernize Dagestan’s economy, fight corruption, and encourage outside investment. He also promised a fresh approach toward tackling the insurgency, by stressing the importance of dialogue and guaranteeing the safety of militants who wished to return to ‘normal human life.’” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 19)
“In mid-March, a massive redeployment of military personnel from Chechnya to Dagestan took place. According to unofficial sources from Dagestan, up to 20,000-25,000 troops were moved to the neighboring republic. A military column including large amounts of armored fighting vehicles set out from Khankala, a military base to the east of Grozny, to the Karabudakhkent district of Dagestan on the outskirts of the capital city of Makhachkala. Rationalized by the authorities as another move to improve the deteriorating situation in the Caspian republic, the move has caused serious concern both within and outside Dagestan.” (
CACI, 4 April 2012)
“Starting in early October, troops of the Russian Ministry of Defense are again participating in the counterinsurgency campaign in the North Caucasus. […] In fact, Moscow is actively strengthening its military presence in the region, with a particular focus on Dagestan. In the spring months of 2012, it deployed up to 25,000 MVD police units to Dagestan, the majority of which had previously been stationed in Chechnya. The recent decision to deploy army units to Dagestan seems to have been made in August or September and confirms that the success of the MVD troops has been limited. Indeed, the police units recruited from all over the Russian Federation and deployed to Dagestan for only a few months have proven incapable of grasping the peculiarities of local counterinsurgency warfare. In addition, the death toll on MVD troops deployed in the Dagestan campaign has increased steadily in recent months.” (
CACI, 14 November 2012)
“Some republics sought to develop non-repressive responses to the threats posed by armed groups. Commissions for Adaptation were established in Dagestan and Ingushetia with the aim of encouraging the surrender and re-integration into society of former members of armed groups. The Dagestani authorities adopted a more tolerant attitude towards Salafi Muslims.” (
AI, 23 May 2013)
“In January 2013, Putin replaced Magomedov by appointing Ramazan Abdulatipov as Dagestan’s leader. A clear toughening of counterinsurgency strategy largely coincided with the June 2013 call by Caucasus Emirate leader Doku Umarov for ‘maximum force’ to attempt to prevent the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi did from taking place. The Dagestani presidential administration ceased efforts to foster ties with and integrate non-militant Salafis and instead presided over a crackdown on Salafi communities.” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 21)
“Hopes for improvement of the security situation in Dagestan gradually dissipate as attacks intensify in the republic. In spite of an anti-corruption campaign introduced by Dagestan’s new acting president, harsher government tactics appear to be matched by more exasperated attacks by the militants, while new anti-insurgency jamaats are formed to avenge the casualties of terrorist attacks.” (
CACI, 26 June 2013)
“On June 24, the acting head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, said an amnesty for militants in the republic who want to return to civilian life could be announced. Abdulatipov made the surprise comments in an interview with Russian TV Channel One (Pervy Kanal). ‘We should learn how to forgive each other,’ Abdulatipov said, striking perhaps the most conciliatory tone to date (http://www.1tv.ru/sprojects/si=5756).” (
Jamestown Foundation, 8 July 2013)
“At the Valdai forum in September, Abdulatipov stated that there were 150–250 insurgents in the republic and that 2 percent of them were foreign mercenaries.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 30 September 2013)
“Bei einem Runden Tisch zum Thema ‘Grundzüge der neuen Politik in Dagestan: Erste Erfolge und gefährliche Tendenzen‘ diskutierten im Juli in Moskau russische Menschenrechtler über das Vorgehen von Ramasan Abdulatipow. Er bekämpfe zwar in Dagestan die Kriminalität und die Korruption und biete der Jugend neue wirtschaftliche Perspektiven, hieß es dort. Gleichzeitig seien jedoch Rückschritte zu beobachten. Eine bislang erfolgreiche Kommission zur Wiedereingliederung von Aufständischen habe faktisch aufgehört zu existieren.” (
AI, October 2013)
“On October 22, government forces deployed in Dagestan’s mountains were significantly reinforced when at least 500 servicemen arrived in the district of Untsukul. Government forces will reportedly also be sent to other districts in Dagestan’s mountainous region to improve the deteriorating security situation in the area.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 28 October 2013)
“The structure of the insurgency allows the militants to cover all of Dagestan’s territory—from Derbent in the south to the Nogai steppes in the north, from the Caspian shores to the mountainous areas. The overall number of militant groups in Dagestan is estimated to be between 20 to 30 groups. The total number of militants, meaning people who went to the forests to wage armed struggle against the government, is believed to be at least several hundred.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 8 November 2013)
“Dagestan remained the epicentre of insurgent violence in 2013, with a long list of violent confrontations, improvised explosive device (IED) incidents, killings of officials and attacks on shops selling alcohol. It also was subject to a significant number of alleged abuses by security officials. These included illegal detentions, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, falsified criminal cases and torture.” (
ICG, 30 January 2014, p. 21)
“In 2013, the total number of victims of the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus decreased as compared to 2012 by 239 people, or by 19.5%. The death toll went down from 700 in 2012 to 529 in 2013, i.e., by 24.4%; the number of wounded persons – from 525 to 457 (by 13%). However losses among civilians went up. […] In 2013, the highest count of victims was recorded in Dagestan – 641 persons, including 341 people killed and 300 others wounded.” (
Caucasian Knot, 31 January 2014)
“In 2014, Dagestan became the political center of the armed resistance movement after the confirmation of the death of Caucasus Emirate leader Doku Umarov and following his replacement by Dagestani Sheikh Abu Muhammad (Aliaskhab Kebekov) (Kavkazsky Uzel, gazeta.ru, March 18; kavkazcenter.com, July 24). […] With the change in leadership of the Caucasus Emirate the period of Chechen dominance of the North Caucasus armed resistance came to an end. Umarov, in his final years, was merely a symbol of the unity of the North Caucasian militants. […] To improve his position outside Dagestan, the new insurgent leader Abu Muhammad forced the leaders of the national jamaats across the region to pledge allegiance to him—not once but twice. […] The Dagestani jamaat is divided into sectors, which in turn are subdivided into local jamaats. Overall, there are hundreds of militants in the republic. Unlike the Chechen militants, few Dagestani rebels have to live in the mountains or forests; instead, they reside in regular settlements or urban areas. The number of Dagestani rebels does not decline despite the Russian authorities’ weekly reports that they have been eliminated.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 15 October 2014)
“The lingering question is how the Russian security services manage to eliminate mid-level insurgent leaders again and again. This cannot simply be the result of the security services’ experience in conducting special operations. Rather, it indicates that the security services have successfully planted numerous moles in the jamaats throughout the mountainous North Caucasus republic.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 26 November 2014)
“Nearly 70 percent of all militant attacks and victims of such attacks in the North Caucasus take place in the Republic of Dagestan. The center of the region’s political struggle also moved to Dagestan last year, which was connected to the fact that a Dagestani emir, Abu Muhammad (Aliaskhab Kebekov), replaced the deceased Doku Umarov as leader of the Caucasus Emirate. The new Caucasus Emirate emir endorsed the head of al-Qaeda, Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri (Hunafa.com, June 23, 2014). By supporting al-Zawahiri, Abu Muhammad collided with the leadership of the IS and those North Caucasians fighting under the flag of its leader, Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 9 January 2015)
“In 2014, Northern Caucasus saw a dramatic reduction of the number of victims of the armed conflict. […] The statistics for Dagestan, which remained the leader in the number of victims among the regions of Northern Caucasus, shows that the republic preserved its leadership in 2014, except for Quarter 4, when Chechnya had more victims than Dagestan. However, in Dagestan, in 2014, the number of killed and wounded persons went down by 54.3%. The total number of victims of the conflict decreased from 641 people (of which 341 people were killed and at least 300 wounded) in 2013 down to 293 people, including 208 killed and 85 wounded. The number of victims of terror acts dropped 9.9-fold as compared with 2013.” (
Caucasian Knot, 31 January 2015)
“Information has emerged recently pointing to a growing number—from dozens to hundreds—of Dagestani residents fighting alongside the extremist group Islamic State (ISIS). The increasing involvement of Dagestani fighters with ISIS may explain the 54 percent drop in the number of casualties resulting from clashes between insurgents and security forces in Dagestan in 2014, compared with the previous year.” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 13)
“Judging by the actions of the militants in Dagestan in February and the beginning of March 2015, a major regrouping in the ranks of the Dagestani jamaat has been completed. After the rebels in Dagestan resolved the issues of command and subordination, they have resumed attacking government forces as in the past. Earlier reports suggested that the Dagestani militants split into two camps. One camp remains in the Caucasus Emirate while another camp renounced the Caucasus Emirate’s amir and joined the new jihadist movement, the Islamic State, by taking an oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (see EDM, January 30).” (
Jamestown Foundation, 13 March 2015)
“On April 19, 2015, the Caucasus Emirate’s leader Aliaskhab Kebekov, nom de guerre Ali Abu Mukhammad, was killed in a special operation carried out by Russian elite forces in Dagestan’s Buynaksk district. His death came at a time of profound decline of the North Caucasian jihadists, coupled with the ongoing split in their ranks as an increasing number of fighters and insurgent leaders turn to the Islamic State (IS). […] Lasting slightly over a year, Kebekov’s formal reign was the shortest in the history of the virtual theocracy. This is a further indication of the increasingly effective counterinsurgency tactics deployed by Russian and local forces against jihadist groups across the North Caucasus – particularly in the easternmost republic of Dagestan, which has since the late 2000s constituted the hotbed of regional insurgency (see the 09/29/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst). […] The Caucasus Emirate is currently undergoing the most serious crisis in its history.” (
CACI, 29 April 2015)
“The murder of Aliaskhab Kebekov, the leader of the banned terrorist organization "Imarat Kavkaz", will lead to greater influence of the ‘Islamic State’ in Northern Caucasus. This opinion was expressed by researcher Akhmet Yarlykapov and journalist Orkhan Djemal. […]According to Akhmet Yarlykapov, the Senior Researcher of the Department of Caucasian Studies of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), one of the key figures of the ‘Imarat Kavkaz’ was killed in the special operation in Dagestan. The expert predicts ‘a serious conflict between members of the 'Imarat Kavkaz' and loyal supporters of the IS’ in the nearest future. Orkhan Djemal, a journalist of the Forbes magazine, agrees with the Akhmet Yarlykapov's opinion. He predicts ‘a split in the ranks of the militants’ after the murder of Aliaskhab Kebekov.” (
Caucasian Knot, 20 April 2015)
“Magomed Suleimanov (Abu Usman of Gimry), a Sharia militants' judge and the leader of the armed underground in Dagestan, has been appointed the new leader of the ‘Imarat Kavkaz’ recognized in Russia as a terrorist organization. This was reported by Geidar Djemal, the Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia. […] ‘As far as I know, Magomed Suleimanov (Abu Usman of Gimry) has become the new leader of the 'Imarat Kavkaz'. I believe the prospects of the 'Imarat Kavkaz' as an independent organization are still not bright, since the influence of the 'Islamic State' (also recognized a terrorist organization) is growing. They will merge,’ Geidar Djemal said in his interview to the ‘Caucasian Knot’ correspondent.” (
Caucasian Knot, 28 May 2015)
“The leader of the North-Caucasian branch of the ‘Islamic State’ (IS), which has been recognized as a terrorist organization, is the Dagestani commander Abu Mukhammad (Rustam Asilderov). […] The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that on June 21 a message was posted on the YouTube that militants of four vilayets of the so-called ‘Imarat Kavkaz’, which is regarded in Russia as a terrorist organization, swore their allegiance to Abu-Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader of the above IS (earlier named as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – ISIL). The IS has taken the oath of North-Caucasian militants and announced the establishment of its branch in the region.” (
Caucasian Knot, 25 June 2015)
“While observers focused on the shift from the Caucasus Emirate to the Islamic State in the North Caucasus, the news that a single amir from the team of the slain CE leader took an oath of allegiance to the CE went almost unnoticed. The rebel leader who remained loyal to the CE is Said Abu Muhammad Arakinsky, the group’s amir of Dagestan (Kavkazsky Uzel, December 29, 2014). […] The existence of two competing armed opposition groups (the remnants of the CE and IS) in the North Caucasus creates the conditions for conflict that will also have an impact on their representatives abroad -in the Middle East and Turkey, where the financiers of the North Caucasus militants will be discouraged from providing support to them. In the meantime, it is hard to understand whom exactly the Russian security services are currently fighting in Dagestan. […] Thus, so far, it appears that the split between supporters of the Caucasus Emirate and the Islamic State has made little difference on the ground in the North Caucasus. The IS supporters have not completed the process of being incorporated into the structure of the ‘caliphate’ and have not yet carried out any operations under their new flag. The Russian security services continue to conduct operations to locate and eliminate rebels, but nothing has happened yet to indicate in any shape or form any change in the tactics or strategy on the part of the clandestine armed Islamist resistance.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 9 July 2015)
“Russia’s policy toward the Islamic State (IS) group in the Middle East is controversial. On the one hand, involvement in IS activities officially became a crime in Russia in February 2015 (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, February 27). On the other hand, Russia does not seem to have taken the appropriate steps to stem the outflow of volunteer fighters to the Middle East. Given the powers of the Russian state to control the movement of its citizens, there are few if any indications that the government is preventing people from going to the war torn region. A recent investigative report by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta states that beyond failing to create obstacles for Russian citizens seeking to go to Syria to fight, the Russian security services actually contribute to the outflow. ‘They regard as a threat only those who try to return from that war,’ the newspaper wrote (Novaya Gazeta, July 29). […] The Novaya Gazeta article also has extremely credible evidence of the new government policy designed to export Islamists from Russia to the Middle East. According to the newspaper, several leaders of the underground movement in the village of Novosasitl, in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district, reached an agreement with the Federal Security Service (FSB), which allowed them to receive foreign passports and secure safe passage to Turkey and then on to Syria. Among them was the so-called amir of the Northern Sector of the Caucasus Emirate who, officially, is dead, but in reality, according to the report, went to Turkey.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 3 August 2015)
“At the end of 2014, a wave of changes swept the militants of the North Caucasus, as the well-known commanders of the Caucasus Emirate left the organization and pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (IS) (Lezgi-yar.ru, January 1). Having recognized Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as their leader, the militants set up a branch of the IS in the North Caucasus (News.bigmir.net, June 25). The CE suffered further losses when its leader, Amir Abu Muhammad (Aliaskhab Kebekov), was killed (Regnum, April 20). Despite these setbacks, the CE tried to survive and started to form new military structures in Dagestan (see EDM, August 6). An impression emerged that the two rebel organizations, the CE and the IS, would compete with each other for the right to represent the armed Islamic resistance movement in the region. However, what happened in recent days may change everything: the CE did not simply suffer another round of losses, but lost three of its top commanders, including the leader of the organization. […] Among the rebels killed was new CE leader Abu Usman Gimrinsky (Magomed Suleimanov), an Untsukul district native. Two other well-known commanders were reportedly also killed—Said Arakansky (Kamil Saidov), amir of the Dagestani Velayat, and Abu Dujan (Abdulla Abdullaev), amir of the Mountainous Sector of the Dagestani Velayat, (Kavpolit.com, August 11). Thus, practically all the top leaders of the Caucasus Emirate were wiped out. Within hours of the incident, the websites that represent the CE confirmed the death of the group’s leadership (Kavkazcenter.com, August 11).” (
Jamestown Foundation, 14 August 2015)
“While the governor of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, has boasted of a drastic reduction in the number of attacks by insurgents in the republic, the Russian authorities’ statistics indicate that attacks in Dagestan are, in fact, increasing. At a recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, Abdulatipov claimed that ‘2014 was the first year that we lived through without terrorist attacks.’ He said Dagestan today is 3.2 times safer than the national average in the country: […] Dagestani experts point to a number of irregularities in Abdulatipov’s blissful reports. First, they say that the general level of crime in Dagestan has always been quite low. At the same time, the statistics provided by the Russian prosecutor general’s office indicate that the number of terrorism-related crimes have steadily grown in Dagestan over the past several years, and the republic has been at the top of the list in this regard in Russia at least since 2011. In 2011, prosecutors recorded 220 such crimes in the republic; in 2012, the number grew to 295; in 2013, the number of terrorism-related crimes reached 365; in 2014, that number hit 472. In the first six months of 2015, 352 terrorism-related crimes were already recorded (Kavkazskaya Politika, September 4).” (
Jamestown Foundation, 16 September 2015)
“The Russian Investigative Committee launched an investigation of 19 individuals, which indicates how many suspected members of the Islamic State network in the North Caucasus are known to the authorities. The figure of 19 is not realistic for Dagestan, where even cells in remote villages often have several members in them. Hundreds of active militants likely exist across the republic. In addition, there are probably thousands of sympathizers encouraging and financing the militants. The group of IS militants in Gimry, a village located in Dagestan’s Untsukul district, alone has 16 members, according
to investigators (Operline.ru, October 23). Dozens of militants are found in southern Dagestan - two or three dozen in Khasavyurt and many more in Kizlyar, Makhachkala, Buinaksk and other places. According to investigators, the Velayat Dagestan finances itself by extorting businesses and officials, as well as through ransom payments (RIA Novosti, October 22). However, this is an oversimplified picture: in reality, Dagestan’s militants also certainly receive at least some funding from sources in the Middle East and Turkey.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 29 October 2015)
“Abdurashid Magomedov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, has reported that a lot of natives of Dagestan left for Syria with their family members and children. According to the Minister, all of the men who left for Syria are put on the federal wanted list. […]The Minister has also noted that there are serious hotbeds of tension in the territory of the republic. ‘At present, the main hotbeds of tension are located in the mountainous districts of southern Dagestan, including the Shamil, Khunzakh, Gunib, Tsumada, and Tsuntin Districts,’ the Minister has emphasized.” (
Caucasian Knot, 10 December 2015)
Attacks and violations of human rights
“Across town in an outlying, concrete-block neighborhood, Svetlana Isayeva runs the group Mothers of Daghestan for Human Rights from a tiny ground-floor office. She started the organization after her 25-year-old son disappeared from the street outside her home three years ago. A stoic, dark-haired woman, Isayeva says many young men like him are detained by security forces, especially those who attend mosques and show other signs of religious piousness. She says they're forced to confess to terrorism and often killed. ‘Lately it's become common among law enforcers to burn people alive in their cars,’ she says. ‘Then they're accused of blowing themselves up by accident.” (
RFE/RL, 4 November 2011)
“Похищения и насильственные исчезновения людей по-прежнему остаются одной из распространенных форм грубейших нарушений прав человека в Дагестане. За годы сложилась целая система незаконного насилия, включающая в себя неотъемлемые элементы – похищение людей, применение к ним пыток и осуществление внесудебных казней части похищенных. В Дагестане объектом похищений обычно становятся люди, исповедующие фундаменталистское направление ислама (салафизм), именно их силовики подозревают в пособничестве или причастности к вооруженному подполью. В Дагестане, как и в других республиках Северного Кавказа, нередко похищают и впоследствии убивают идеологов этого течения, тех, кому сложно предъявить официальные обвинения, но кого силовики считают ‘опасными’. Впрочем, среди похищенных есть люди, не принадлежащие к салафитскому течению.” (
Memorial, 4 September 2012, p. 48-49)
“Die Dagestan-Spezialistin Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya berichtet von illegalen Verhaftungen und Misshandlungen von Personen, denen religiöser Extremismus vorgeworfen wird. Häuser von Angehörigen der Aufständischen seien in Brand gesetzt worden, so Sokiryanskaya. Staatlich geduldete Bürgerwehren würden die Bewohner einschüchtern. Tatsächlich treibe man mit diesen Methoden einen Teil der Opposition in die Hände der Aufständischen.” (
AI, October 2013)
“In March, the security services in Dagestan revived an environmentally dangerous tactical tool for fighting the regional insurgency—arson attacks on forests. Multiple media outlets and Internet social media confirmed reports of forest fires in several districts in the republic.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 1 April 2014)
“Few Russians, however, are interested in the rising number of kidnappings by government forces in Dagestan. Kidnappings are a way of putting pressure on the relatives of the militants or on their sympathizers—or, more generally, on Salafis.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 15 May 2014)
“In 2014, the majority of terrorist attacks in Russia targeted law enforcement and security services using suicide bombing devices and improvised explosive devices placed in vehicles. Especially in the regions of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Kabardino-Balkaria, the attacks were targeted and, in most cases, resulted in the death or injury of one or two persons.” (
USDOS, June 2015)
“Media and local human rights groups have also reported on more than a dozen cases in 2013 and 2014 in which law enforcement and security forces blew up homes belonging to people whose relatives are suspected insurgents.” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 28)
“Young men who are abducted by government forces in Dagestan are frequently found dead at the scene of a special operation (Chernovik.net, May 29). The government then declares them to have been rebels.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 5 June 2015)
“The manner in which law enforcement and security personnel commonly detain suspects is one of the most distinctive abuses in the counterinsurgency campaign in Dagestan. Often these personnel do not identify themselves, show warrants, inform the detainee or their relatives where they are taking them, or the grounds for the detention, or provide timely access to a lawyer of one’s own choosing. In some cases, detentions are part of a highly visible operation in which security officers, backed by police, take suspects into custody without explanation or showing warrants. In other cases, the person is ambushed by men who sometimes wear masks and bundle detainees into a car and drive them to unknown destinations. These circumstances have led families and Russian human rights groups to refer to this pattern as abductions. Those targeted are typically young men who are suspected of having some link to the insurgency through family or other ties, are Salafis, or went to mosques frequented by Salafis. In some cases, the detainees may never be seen or heard from again: they are victims of enforced disappearances. In others, they may be initially forcibly disappeared but do show up within a few days in a detention facility, tortured, or threatened into signing confessions without the presence and advice of a lawyer.” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 48)
“Attacks on police in the streets or on their offices are among the most frequent tactics used by insurgents in their assault on the authorities. Non-police victims are common and in some cases, the assailants attempted to magnify the killings by detonating a small bomb first and then a larger one when police rescue workers and sometimes civilians have gathered.” (
HRW, 18 June 2015, p. 84)
Timeline of attacks in Dagestan
Please note: Although a lot of information on the Russian Federation is available in Russian language only, currently only selected Russian documents are available on ecoi.net. No Russian language publisher is currently among the sources regularly covered by ecoi.net. The following timeline therefore does not purport to be an exhaustive list of attacks in Dagestan, but shall serve as an overview and introduction to the subject.
Please also see the archived versions of this featured topic for a timeline for previous years:
For 2011, see
http://www.ecoi.net/en/document/220655
For 2012, see
http://www.ecoi.net/en/document/242518
For 2013, see
http://www.ecoi.net/en/document/270091
For 2014, see
http://www.ecoi.net/en/document/293185
2015
December
“The so-called Islamic State has said it carried out a gun attack in Dagestan, southern Russia, that left one person dead and 11 injured. Gunmen opened fire at the Derbent citadel, a Unesco World Heritage site in the North Caucasus, on Tuesday evening.” (
BBC News, 31 December 2015)
“In the Gunib District of Dagestan, where a special operation is underway, a man, who opened fire on power agents, was shot dead. He was pre-identified as Shamil Nurmagomedov, the leader of the ‘Sogratl’ militant grouping, said the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC).” (
Caucasian Knot, 28 December 2015)
“On December 24, in the Reductorny settlement in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, power agents tried to stop a Gazel car; the driver opened fire and was killed by return fire. He was identified as Djambulat Aliev, born in 1972. According to preliminary data, he was an accomplice of militants and was engaged in recruitment.” (
Caucasian Knot, 24 December 2015b)
“In the Shamil District, in the course of a shootout, a suspected militant, who opened fire on the policemen, was killed, said a local law enforcement source.” (
Caucasian Knot, 24 December 2015a)
“In Dagestan, in the city of Khasavyurt, a driver of a car, who opened fire on policemen, was shot dead. This was reported by a source from the law enforcement bodies of Dagestan.” (
Caucasian Knot, 23 December 2015)
“Yesterday, in the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, power agents entered two shootouts, […] The second incident occurred in the village of Komsomolskoe. Kizilyurt District. There, policemen also tried to stop a VAZ-21720 car, but fire was opened from inside the car. By return fire the shooter was killed, said the press service of the MIA of Dagestan.” (
Caucasian Knot, 17 December 2015)
“In a shootout with policemen in Kizilyurt, Nuzhidin Zubairov and Shamil Gadjiev, suspected militants, were killed and, said the press service of the Department for Dagestan of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF); while earlier a law enforcement source had reported about three casualties. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported with reference to a law enforcement source, in the outskirt of Kizilyurt, in a shootout, power agent killed two alleged militants' helpers. It was reported that another armed man was killed. The casualties were identified as Nuzhidin Zubairov, Shamil Gadjiev and Magomed Khairullaev; they allegedly had helped local militants, said the law enforcement source.” (
Caucasian Knot, 16 December 2015)
“As reported by the Chief Department (ChD) for the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) of the Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), in Dagestan, a local resident suspected of having links with militants, when policemen tried to check his documents, opened fire and was killed by the return one. According to the MIA, today the agents of the above ChD for the NCFD for several hours watched the driver of a Volga GAZ-3102 car. When they tried to stop him and check his documents in Chernyshevsky Street in the city of Izberbash, the driver opened fire with a pistol, and then was shot dead by policemen's return shots, reports the press service of the ChD for the NCFD of the MIA.” (
Caucasian Knot, 11 December 2015)
“An imam in Russia's Daghestan region in the North Caucasus has been killed in an attack. Police officials in Daghestan say that unknown attackers shot dead Imam Suleiman Kokreksky in the evening on December 1 in the city of Khasavyurt near the border with Chechnya. Kokreksky is the third imam killed in Daghestan by unknown assailants in recent months. Imams Zamirbek Makhmudov and Magomed Khidirov were shot dead in August and September, respectively.” (
RFE/RL, 2 December 2015)
“A militant has been killed in a forest of the Buynaksk District of Dagestan during a shootout, said a local law enforcement source. […] According to the source, in the Buynaksk District this morning an armed man ‘opened fire in response to the demand to present his documents.’” (
Caucasian Knot, 1 December 2015)
November
“29.11.2015 - In Dagestan werden im Rahmen einer Spezialoperation zwei Anführer einer Gruppe von Syrien-Rückkehrern getötet. Die Gruppe wird der Terrormiliz ‘IS’ zugerechnet. Zuvor soll sie dagestanische Zivilisten getötet und Geld erpresst haben.” (
Forschungsstelle Osteuropa der Universität Bremen, 4 December 2015, p. 24)
“Mukhtar Kurbanov, the head of the village of Teletl of the Shamil District, who took office in June 2014 after the assassination of his predecessor, was killed by unidentified attackers. According to investigators, the murder occurred at about 10:00 p.m. of November 21. ‘In the evening of Saturday, unidentified attackers broke into the house of the official and killed him,’ reports a staff member of the Dagestani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) as quoted by the ‘TASS’.” (
Caucasian Knot, 22 November 2015)
“Abdulgasan Abdulkhalikov, killed today in the village of Novy Khushet, was the leader of the ‘Makhachkala’ militant grouping. This was reported by the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC). The NAC has also announced that one of the linemen of the railway has survived after the attack on them, in which Abdulgasan Abdulkhalikov was killed.” (
Caucasian Knot, 7 November 2015)
October
“In Dagestan, in October 2015, 16 people fell victim to the armed conflict; of these, 14 people were killed and two others wounded. 13 alleged members of the armed underground were killed when rendering armed resistance to law enforcers, or in the course of counterterrorist operations (CTOs). As a result of clashes with members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) and attacks of unidentified persons, one law enforcer died and two others were wounded.” (
Caucasian Knot, 11 November 2015)
“The National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) has updated the information on the number of persons killed in the Buynaksk District of Dagestan last night. According to the NAC, four militants were killed, and none of law enforcers were injured. […] According to the NAC's information, the fire was opened on policemen from a passenger car when they tried to stop a VAZ-2107 car without state licence plates.” (
Caucasian Knot, 28 October 2015)
“24.10.2015 - Im Zuge einer Antiterror-Operation wird im dagestanischen Dorf Gimry (Rayon Unzukul) ein Kämpfer einer lokalen terroristischen Vereinigung, der dem IS beigetreten sein soll, von Spezialkräften getötet.” (
Forschungsstelle Osteuropa der Universität Bremen, 6 November 2015, p. 26)
“In the course of the special operation ongoing in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, law enforcers killed four suspected members of the armed underground. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that the special operation ongoing in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan covers the area between the villages of Batayurt, Novy Kurush, and Sadovoe. Starting from the morning, the law enforcers are searching there for members of the armed underground. During the special operation, a shootout occurred between the law enforcers and the suspected militants. As a result, the law enforcers killed four persons, the ‘LifeNews’ reports.” (
Caucasian Knot, 17 October 2015)
“A FSB Special Forces fighter was killed in the course of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) in the Dagestani village of Gimry. He was wounded in a firefight with suspected militants and later died. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that today, at 6:40 a.m., a CTO regime was introduced in the village of Gimry. Law enforcers blocked armed men in a house. Three suspected militants were killed in the course of the firefight.” (
Caucasian Knot, 10 October 2015)
“In the centre of the capital of Dagestan, Shamil Magomedov, who opened fire on policemen, was killed in the course of the shootout. This was reported by a source from the law enforcement bodies of Dagestan. According to the source, tonight, policemen tried to stop an armed man. However, when they tried to check his ID, he opened fire.” (
Caucasian Knot, 7 October 2015)
“Today, the body of Migitin Djavadov, the head of Karamakhi village of the Buynaksk District of Dagestan, has been found in a forest in the Karabudakhkent District. […] Armed men in masks broke into the house of the village head. They forced Migitin Djavadov into their car and drove him away to some unknown destination. This was told to the ‘Caucasian Knot’ correspondent by the official from the Buynaksk District Administration.” (
Caucasian Knot, 1 October 2015)
September
“In the forests of the Suleiman-Stalsky District of Dagestan, during two days, power agents found the bodies of five killed local residents. This was reported by a source from the law enforcement bodies of Dagestan. […] The investigators suggest that the men ‘were killed by local militants because of the fact that the hunters cooperated with the law enforcement authorities,’ the RIA ‘Novosti’ reports with reference to a source from the law enforcement bodies. ” (
Caucasian Knot, 20 September 2015)
“Three persons were killed in an armed attack in the Derbent District of Dagestan. According to a source from the law enforcement bodies, investigators believe the killing was motivated by a militants' revenge upon the hostess of the house engaged in fortune-telling. The attack took place in the village of Rubas at about 2:00 a.m. As a result of the attack, a woman and two men were killed from firearms.” (
Caucasian Knot, 15 September 2015)
“The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has started the investigation into the murder of 34-year-old Imam Magomed Khidirov, who was shot dead in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that this morning, Imam Magomed Khidirov has been shot dead in front of the local mosque in the village of Novy Kurush.” (
Caucasian Knot, 9 September 2015)
“In the Buynaksk District, during a shootout, an unidentified man, who opened fire at policemen, was shot dead, said a local law enforcement source.” (
Caucasian Knot, 8 September 2015)
August
“Two suspected militants were killed by power agents in a shootout that broke out in the Magaramkent District of Dagestan at night on August 29.” (
Caucasian Knot, 29 August 2015)
“A suspected member of the armed underground was shot dead as a result of an armed clash in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan. The killed man is preliminary identified as Islam Muradov. On August 24, a suspected militant entered a shootout with policemen between the villages of Mutsalaul and Genzheaul. The unidentified man opened fire on the policemen and was killed by return fire.” (
Caucasian Knot, 25 August 2015)
“According to the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), the special operation in the neighbourhood of Makhachkala named Novy Khushet resulted in the murder of Abdul Kurbanov, the leader of the ‘Makhachkala’ militant grouping, and two other militants; also, and OMON (riot police) fighter was wounded. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that the special operation in the Leninsky District of Makhachkala began on August 23; and tonight three persons were killed near Novy Khushet, namely, Abdul Kurbanov and his subordinates – Magomed Ibragimov and Magomed Abdulkhaliev; and an OMON employee was wounded, said a law enforcement source.” (
Caucasian Knot, 24 August 2015)
“In the shelling of the OMON (riot police) employee in the Dagestani village of Novy Khushet, two persons were killed – his relative, also a policeman, and his 15-year-old son. His father was hospitalized in grave condition.” (
Caucasian Knot, 22 August 2015)
“The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that on August 20, Magomedgadji Zaidov, the Chief Engineer of the ‘Sogratl’ agricultural company, was killed in the village of Nakazukh of the Gunib District. Three armed men locked his wife inside the house, took him to the edge of the forest and shot and killed him there. Earlier, a staff member of the Untsukul ROVD (District Interior Division) has reported that members of the armed underground are wanted on suspicion of involvement in the killing.” (
Caucasian Knot, 16 September 2015)
“On the border of the Derbent and Tabasaran Districts in Dagestan, unidentified persons have initiated a shootout with policemen. As a result, three persons were killed. No law enforcer suffered.” (
Caucasian Knot, 20 August 2015)
“This morning, a policeman was shelled in the village of Novy Khushet of the Lenin District of Makhachkala. He died from the injuries he got. ‘Some unidentified persons opened fire on the policeman, when he went to work,’ reports a source in the law enforcement bodies of Dagestan.” (
Caucasian Knot, 17 August 2015b)
“According to the unofficial information, one of the persons killed near the village of Gimry in Dagestan has been identified as 30-year-old Gadji Abdullaev, the Amir of the mountainous sector of militants, well-known throughout the armed underground as Abu Dudjana. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that on August 16, two persons were killed in a shootout with law enforcers in the forest near the village of Gimry of the Untsukul District.” (
Caucasian Knot, 17 August 2015a)
“The leader of the self-proclaimed Caucasus Emirate, Magomed Suleimanov, was killed in a special operation in Russia's North Caucasus region of Daghestan on August 11. Russia's National Antiterrorist Committee said that Suleimanov was among four militants killed by security forces in Daghestan's Untsukul district. The pro-militant website Kavkazcenter.com confirmed that Suleimanov, also known as Abu Usman Gimrinsky, ‘became a martyr’ in the August 11 operation. Suleimanov was announced as the leader of the Caucasus Emirate in April after its previous leader, Aliaskhab Kebekov, was killed by Russia's security forces.” (
RFE/RL, 11 August 2015)
“On August 6, at about 10:30 p.m., in the first kilometre of the highway Ekendil-Korchag, in the Suleiman Stalsky District of Dagestan, policemen tried to stop a VAZ-2109 car. In response to the policemen's demands, unidentified persons opened fire at them from inside the car. Two of them were shot dead by response fire; they are now identified. Law enforcers did not suffer.” (
Caucasian Knot, 10 August 2015)
July
“On July 19, at about 5:00 a.m. Moscow time, in the forest near the village of Akka, Tabasaran District of Dagestan, an armed clash broke out with a group of aliens, who opened fire at policemen. During the clash, one alleged militant was killed by return fire, and a riot policeman was fatally wounded.” (
Caucasian Knot, 20 July 2015)
“The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that last night in the outskirt of the village of Gedjukh, two men were killed, who opened fire at power agents from a Lexus car. Employees of the above Chief Department were conducting, jointly with their colleagues from other law enforcement bodies of Dagestan, their operative-search activities in the Derbent District of the republic. They attempted to stop the above Lexus car for inspection, but the men opened fire from inside. They were shot dead by return fire. None of the law enforcers was killed or wounded, says the website of the Chief Department for the NCFD of the Russian MIA.” (
Caucasian Knot, 17 July 2015)
“The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that on July 7 an unidentified man tried to put a bomb under the door of a shop in the village of Babayurt. When law enforcers tried to detain him, he opened fire on them and was killed by return fire.” (
Caucasian Knot, 8 July 2015)
“Two suspected militants and a soldier of Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Russian Federation were killed in an armed clash that broke out in the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that since July 3, a counterterrorist operation (CTO) is held in the Kizilyurt District. According to a law enforcement source, a militants' summer base with an equipped dugout was found and blocked in the forest between the villages of Nechaevka and Matseevka.” (
Caucasian Knot, 4 July 2015)
June
“In the Untsukul District of Dagestan, where the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime is underway, two suspected militants and a soldier have been killed. This was reported by a source in the law enforcement bodies.” (
Caucasian Knot, 23 June 2015)
“22.06.2015 - Nach Angaben des Nationalen Anti-Terrorkomitees sind zwei Mitglieder einer illegalen bewaffneten Formation in Dagestan getötet worden, nachdem die mutmaßlichen Kämpfer aus ihrem Auto heraus das Feuer auf Beamte des Innenministeriums und des FSB eröffnet hatten.” (
Forschungsstelle Osteuropa der Universität Bremen, 3 July 2015, p.25)
“In the evening on June 17, in the outskirt of the village of Verkhni Djalgan of the Derbent District of Dagestan, a local school teacher, who worked at haymaking in military uniform, was shot dead. Investigators believe that militants have to do with the crime, a law enforcement source has reported.” (
Caucasian Knot, 18 June 2015)
“At night of June 6, not far from the village of Komsomolskoe in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, law enforcers stopped a car to check documents; however, a man in the car rendered resistance to them. A shootout occurred, and as a result, the driver of the car was killed. According to a source in the law enforcement bodies, the killed man was identified as Suleiman Zainulabidov, the leader of the ‘Aukh’ grouping of militants, who had sworn to the terrorist organization ‘Islamic State’.” (
Caucasian Knot, 8 June 2015)
May
“ICRF states three militants killed in Dagestan. The data on the number of casualties of the shootout in the Kurakh District of Dagestan was updated by the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation. Earlier, two killed persons were reported. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that last night, in the Kurakh District, power agents killed two alleged members of illegal armed formations (IAFs), who opened fire on employees of federal law enforcement bodies.” (
Caucasian Knot, 27 May 2015)
“In Dagestani Izberbash, a man suspected of opening fire on policeman is killed. ‘Today, at about 8:00 p.m., during the operational and search activities in Izberbash, when policemen were checking a Kia car, unidentified man opened fire on the policemen from firearm,’ the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for Dagestan reports.” (
Caucasian Knot, 19 May 2015b)
“A policeman, who was found with four gunshot wounds on the Makhachkala-Buynaksk road, died at the Makhachkala hospital.” (
Caucasian Knot, 19 May 2015a)
“In the Suleiman-Stalsky District of Dagestan, a forester was killed by unidentified assailants. Law enforcers are searching for six armed men. According to an official from the law enforcement bodies of the region, the armed men killed the forester and then stole his Niva car.” (
Caucasian Knot, 17 May 2015)
“At 6:00 a.m. Moscow time of May 7, in the southern part of the Soviet District of Makhachkala, a legal regime of counterterrorist operation (CTO) was introduced in the territory bounded by Gamidov, Timiryazev and Sulak Streets and the October Revolution Channel. During the special operation, power a
gents blocked a multi-storey residential building in Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Street, where members of armed underground were hiding in one of the apartments. Residents were evacuated. The power agents started negotiations with the blocked members of the armed underground and offered them to lay down their arms. As a result of the negotiations, Patimat Begova, a wife of one of the men hiding in the apartment, left the building. The further negotiations did not succeed, and the men, who remained in the house, opened fire. In the course of the subsequent assault of the building, three suspected members of the armed underground were killed. At 11:00 p.m. Moscow time of the same day, the CTO regime was cancelled. The men killed in the special operation have been preliminary identified as Zaur Begov, Abumuslim Gasanov, and Mirzabek Idrisov.” (
Caucasian Knot, 11 May 2015)
“In Kizilyurt, a resident of Dagestan, who was on the federal wanted list, blew himself up while the police tried to detain him. This was reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for Dagestan.” (
Caucasian Knot, 2 May 2015)
“Four persons have died in a shootout at a restaurant in Makhachkala, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan has reported, confirming the death of a police officer in the incident.” (
Caucasian Knot, 1 May 2015)
April
“Russia's National Antiterrorist Committee (NAK) said that Khasmagomed Charanov was killed by security forces in Daghestan's Khasavyurt District, near the internal border with Chechnya, on April 27. It said Charanov was killed at about 4 a.m. after he refused to surrender and opened fire at security forces. According to NAK, Charanov was wanted on suspicion of involvement in several attacks on law enforcement officers, as well as extortion.” (
RFE/RL, 27 April 2015)
“25.04.2015 - In der dagestanischen Hauptstadt Machatschkala werden während einer Antiterror-Operation unter der Leitung des Nationalen Antiterror-Komitees zwei Kämpfer getötet, die zur Terrormiliz ‚Islamischer Staat‘ gehört haben sollen.” (
Forschungsstelle Osteuropa der Universität Bremen, 8 May 2015, p. 26)
“On April 24, at 5:30 a.m. Moscow time, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was introduced in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan. In the village of Novy Paraaul, power agents blocked a house with suspected militants and the surrounding area. While the power agents tried to detain the suspects, the militants opened fire on them from a grenade launcher and automatic weapons and were killed by return fire. At the place of the incident, the power agents found and seized two submachine guns, a sniper rifle, and a large quantity of ammunition. The killed men were identified as Arsanali Kambulatov and Mugutdin Mazanov, who swore allegiance to the terrorist organization ‘Islamic State’ (IS).” (
Caucasian Knot, 27 April 2015)
“On April 23, at about 0:00 a.m. Moscow time, in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, the police carried out a special operation to detain an armed man. He refused to lay down his arms, opened fire on them at the 35th kilometre of the Manas-Sergokala road and then tried to escape in a Toyota Camry car. The man was killed by return fire. None of the policemen was injured. The suspected member of an illegal armed formation (IAF) has been identified.” (
Caucasian Knot, 27 April 2015)
“On the morning of April 19, the police introduced a counter-terrorist operation regime in the village of Gerei-Avlak in Dagestan’s Buinaksk district. The Federal Security Service (FSB) apparently had information about someone illegally residing in the village. As is usual in special operations, a house was sealed off. By evening, the children were allowed to exit the building, but a woman refused to leave despite being begged to do so by her parents. An armed clash lasting several hours ensued in which five people were killed—three men and two women. Aliaskhab Kebekov, the leader of the Caucasus Emirate, was identified among the slain militants. Two other mid-ranking field commanders, 33-year-old Shamil Gajiev and 35-year-old Omar Magomedov, were also identified among those killed. Gajiev was the amir of Dagestan’s Untsukul district and Magomedov was amir of the Central Sector (Moskovsky Komsomolets, April 20).” (
Jamestown Foundation, 24 April 2015)
March
“North Caucasian militants who recently pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his so-called Islamic State (see EDM, January 8) have experienced their first losses. It happened during a counter-terrorist operation conducted on March 31 in the city of Khasavyurt, near the administrative border with Chechnya, during which government forces ambushed militants operating outside the North Caucasian resistance movement, the Caucasus Emirate.” (
Jamestown Foundation, 3 April 2015)
“According to updated information, two persons were killed in a shootout, which occurred in Khasavyurt in the evening of March 25. […] Policemen conducted operational and search activities, when they were shelled while they tried to check the documents for a Lada Priora car. One of the attackers was killed at the place by return fire. The second attacker was brought to hospital with a gunshot wound, and he died there.” (
Caucasian Knot, 26 March 2015)
“Russia’s authorities say seven suspected militants have been killed in a security operation in the North Caucasus region of Daghestan. Two gunmen were reported killed in a March 21 raid at an apartment building in the regional capital, Makhachkala. Five other militants were killed when police searched other apartments in the building. The National Antiterrorist Committee said those killed were suspected in an series of terrorist actions, including attacks on police officers.” (
RFE/RL, 21 March 2015)
“This morning, an armed attack on policemen has been committed in the Babayurt District of Dagestan. The attacker was killed by return fire. The incident occurred at about 5:00 a.m. Moscow time in the vicinity of the village of Khamamatyurt.” (
Caucasian Knot, 2 March 2015)
February
“On February 25, power agents discovered a dugout in the territory of the Kizilyurt District, where militants were hiding. Then, four villages of the district – Nechaevka, Sultan-Yangiyurt, Chontaul and Kirovaul – were put under the CTO regime. According to the Operative Headquarters of Dagestan, seven militants were killed in the CTO; one special fighter was lost and another one was wounded. The CTO regime was lifted on March 2.” (
Caucasian Knot, 3 March 2015)
“The suspected militants killed last night in a shootout at a police post in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, have been pre-identified. The ‘Caucasian Knot’ has reported that today at 1:30 a.m. Moscow time, at the police post near the village of Sulevkent in the Khasavyurt District, a shootout broke out. According to the Dagestani MIA, policemen stopped a car; and the three unidentified men opened fire from inside the car. In the shootout, one policeman and two suspected militants were killed. Another policeman was wounded; and the third alleged militant managed to escape.” (
Caucasian Knot, 24 February 2015)
January
“27.01.2015 - Sicherheitskräfte töten im Rayon Bujnaksk (Dagestan) bei einem Schusswechsel zwei mutmaßliche Untergrundkämpfer. Diese hatten bei dem Versuch einer Fahrzeugkontrolle das Feuer eröffnet.” (
Forschungsstelle Osteuropa der Universität Bremen, 30 January 2015, p. 25)
“Two suspected militants were killed on Thursday, January 15, in a special operation conducted in the village of Novoselskoe, Khasavyurt District of Dagestan. One of them has been pre-identified. Nobody of law enforcers suffered. According to local residents, power agents are still in the village carrying out checks.” (
Caucasian Knot, 15 January 2015)
“Two policemen were killed and two others wounded when unknown assailants opened fire on a police vehicle in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan. The incident happened late on January 6 in the Khasavyurt district. Local security officials said occupants of another vehicle opened fire on the police car on the Khasavyurt-Oktyarskoye road. The press service for Daghestan's branch of the Interior Ministry said other police chased the car and fired on it, killing at least one of the attackers.” (
RFE/RL, 6 January 2015)
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